Joining NBC's successful Thursday-night comedy block isn't easy for any new show, but Kath & Kim (8:30 pm/ET) has had a particularly tough go at it in a year when all of NBC's comedies (including 30 Rock, The Office and My Name Is Earl) have posted decreased ratings. But with a full-season vote of confidence from the network, Kath & Kim is forging ahead with, among other storylines, wedding plans. Join us for a little girl talk with executive producer Michelle Nader and stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, who tell us how they interpreted the Australian original, their own celebrity crushes and what it takes to be considered a "good eater" on camera.
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Coming to your local NBC station and online outlets soon: Adorable Chuck star Zachary Levi hosting a sneak peek at the network's new and returning series for fall.The 30-minute special, The NBC Primetime Preview, will include an exclusive backstage look at a full spectrum of NBC Universal shows (including titles from USA, Sci Fi, Bravo, UniHD, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen and Sleuth). It will also draw viewers in by the boatloads (they hope) with appearances by Christian Slater of My Own Worst Enemy; Molly Shannon and Selma Blair from Kath & Kim; and stars from Heroes and The Office. The special is set to blow your minds beginning Aug. 30 and running through Sept. 28. Are you excited for some sneek peakage, or do you think this is just a transparent ploy for early buzz? — Erin FoxRelated• Christian Slater Talks about His New Jekyl and Hyde Show• What Would Dwight Schrute Watch?• The Office's Phyllis and Stanley Dish about Next Season
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NBC has ordered six episodes of Kath & Kim, its U.S. version of the hit Aussie sitcom about a fortysomething divorcée (played stateside by Molly Shannon) and her self-absorbed daughter (pout queen Selma Blair). What's significant here is that a pilot for K&K hasn't even been shot; instead, NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios cochair Ben Silverman made the call based on the original series' success. Citing NBC's new plan to produce far fewer pilots, Silverman tells Variety the K&K sitch "exemplifies how we are changing the process by ordering shows that we believe in and greenlighting them straight to series. We are confident that this proven international hit will effortlessly translate to American audiences."Worst case, he says, "Watch 30 Rock." (The preceding joke was stolen from Ausiello.)
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At last! NBC has found the daughter to Molly Shannon's mother for its much-delayed comedy Kath & Kim (based on the hit Aussie series of the same name). And the winner is... Selma Blair!.... Lifetime has picked Luke Perry and Reba's Joanna Garcia to star in its December MOTW, A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride, which is not a biopic about Jamie Lynn Spears but a feel-good flick about a wedding planner who's all Grinchy about mom Helen Shaver's Eddie Murphy-speed romance with Twin Peaks bad guy Kenneth Welsh. — Ben Katner
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Question: I've heard there's going to be a remake of The Fog. Do you have any news you can share? I remember it as one of the most frightening movies I ever saw.
Answer: The remake of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980), helmed by Stigmata (1999) director Rupert Wainwright, has already wrapped and is due for release by Sony Pictures in October 2005, just in time for Halloween. The cast includes Selma Blair, Maggie Grace of TV's Lost and Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent on the series Smallville. The story, which involves a small
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